


Let's Salsa!

by multifandomgeek



Series: Commuters [8]
Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Dancing, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Lesbian AU, commuters, light homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 06:35:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19267783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/multifandomgeek/pseuds/multifandomgeek
Summary: Vanessa and Brooke are going to a wedding, and Vanessa is excited about bringing someone to a family event for the first time. She's dying to show Brooke off to her cousin Liliana, who she has had a feud with for her entire life.But first, they're gonna practice some salsa. Brooke says she can dance, but Vanessa isn't buying it until she sees it in action.





	Let's Salsa!

“Baby, relax! I can dance!” said Brooke, hands on Vanessa’s shoulders.

“Just because you can shake your booty to a beat at a club doesn’t mean you can salsa,” responded Vanessa, “and as I said, I’ll believe it when I see it.”

They were standing in the middle of Brooke’s living room. The coffee table had been moved to the corner so they’d have a little more space to dance. Vanessa was selecting a Youtube video on the TV for them to practice, and her stress was visible. She was switching between videos at a fast speed, occasionally watching a few seconds just to go back and resume the shuffling. Brooke ended up sitting down to wait.

They were going to one of Vanessa’s cousin’s wedding on the weekend, and you would think Brooke would be the nervous one, with the perspective of meeting the family for the first time. But Vanessa had never brought a partner to a family event, and apparently there was a long feud between her and another cousin she was dying to finally get some advantage on. She had tried to explain it to Brooke, but it was a life-long thing, way too complicated for her to completely understand. The important thing for now was that they had to salsa, and do it like professionals or so help you God.

Vanessa finally decided on a video, putting the remote down and turning to Brooke, who got up and stood in front of her. The blonde had a loose smile on as Vanessa taught her where her hands should go and the basics steps with a serious expression. Brooke was going to be the lead, so she looked at the video and focused on the guy playing her part on the way too slow demonstration.

“That’s not too complicated,” said Brooke, repeating the moves with ease. “But they’re not really dancing, let’s try one where they’re dancing to some real music,” she said, getting away from Vanessa to pick the remote up and erase the “beginner” from the search, selecting another video.

“Cocky,” said Vanessa, “you barely learned the steps.”

“You’re underestimating me,” said Brooke, taking Vanessa’s hand and leading her into a twirl so she would land with her back to the TV. Brooke kissed her forehead while assuming the initial position. “I told you, I can dance.”

She didn’t give Vanessa a chance for a snarky comeback, already beginning to move at the rhythm of the music coming from the TV. She started easy, getting used to the steps, but kept looking back at the video to learn the sways and twirls and spins. A hand here, a step there and pretty soon Brooke was even letting herself move her hips to the beat without worry. She had to repeat some steps to get them right, but she was confident they could do a good show after a few hours of practice. When the song ended she pulled Vanessa close and gave her a peck, accompanied by a smug grin.

“You can fucking dance!” Vanessa shouted, jumping with her arms around her neck laughing, forcing Brooke to hold her by the waist.

“What a surprise, it’s not like I told you a hundred times,” said Brooke, laughing too while Vanessa kicked her feet back and screeched excitedly.

“Liliana isn’t gonna know what hit her!” she screamed, putting her feet down and giving Brooke a loud kiss. She took the remote and searched for another video. “You think you can do this move?” she asked, looking at Brooke expectedly. The couple on the screen did a series of fast spins and twirls that looked incredibly smooth and complicated.

“Maybe,” said Brooke with a frown of concentration. “Let me play the first part again,” she said, taking the remote from Vanessa, her mind already focused on learning a new thing. It had been a while since she felt the thrill of dancing and choreography racing through her body like fluid energy, even if this was so different from what she was used to doing back when she used to train. She missed it, and it had the added bonus of having Vanessa looking at her with so much pride she was almost blushing. This was gonna be fun.

\--

"You look so good, baby, I'm gonna have to find a dark corner for us to sneak to before the night is over," whispered Vanessa in Brooke's ear.

"Can you please stop saying these things to me while we're surrounded by your family?" Brooke murmured back with her eyes closed, trying to will away the fantasies already starting to form in her head. She had her hair up in a sideways pompadour, creating the illusion that she had it really short and making she look ‘real lesbian’, according to her girlfriend. Brooke actually liked it a lot, but Vanessa’s reaction to the style was making her seriously consider cutting it for real.

They were sitting down at a large round table, a little paper square indicating their places. Brooke's heart swelled as she found herself filling the place of “Vanessa’s +1”. She took it in her hands and felt the small bumps of the ink on the expensive paper, wondering if someone would miss it if she kept it.

“Oh, that’s Liliana right there,” pointed Vanessa to a girl across the room. She had pitch black hair and was talking to an old lady with her arm hooked with a young man’s, presumably her husband.

“Remind me why you hate her again?” asked Brooke.

“What? I don’t hate her, I love her, she’s my cousin,” said Vanessa looking genuinely confused at the question.

“Right, sorry,” Brooke corrected herself.

“But she’s a little bitch,” said Vanessa. “Always have been, ever since we were kids. When I came out, she told me ‘what a shame that I’ll never know what it’s like to have such a good husband like hers’”, she brought her voice up to quote Liliana and finished it with a grimace, making Brooke chuckle. “I’ve been dying to throw it at her face that I ain’t missing nothing, bitch, and this year I have my gorgeous blonde, let’s see how you like them cookies. I can’t show you what she does to me in bed but I can show you what she looks like on the dancefloor and you’re gonna be so gagged you’re gonna have to ask for Tia Maria anti-acid pills,” she finished with a snap, and the fact that she kept her voice down while saying it all was truly a miracle.

“Oookay, please try to keep the bedroom out of the smack talk,” pleaded Brooke.

“It’s gonna be hard with you looking like that, mama,” responded Vanessa with a smirk, leaning in for a kiss, strategically placed not to ruin their lipsticks.

\--

Brooke estimated she didn’t manage to meet half of the member’s of Vanessa’s family at the wedding. She was a little bummed her mom couldn’t come, but the warm welcome she received from aunts and cousins almost made up for it. She couldn’t even speak to some of them, because of the language barrier, and still felt utterly loved by everyone. There had been a few homophobic jokes by a specific uncle and one cousin who had refused to talk to them, but she was choosing to ignore that in favor of the overwhelming majority of good experiences she had had so far.

When she finally met Liliana, she was expecting more of a subtle catfight than the tight hug and cheerful chat that she ended up witnessing. However, when Vanessa pulled her close and wrapped an arm around her waist to introduce her, Brooke could clearly notice the edge on her apparently friendly voice.

“This is Brooke, my girlfriend,” said Vanessa. “Brooke, this is Liliana and her husband Michael.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Brooke shaking their hands. Liliana looked genuinely happy to meet her, while her husband looked like the kind of guy who didn’t make an effort to be more than just polite enough.

“Prima, you’re finally going to join us on the dance floor! I can’t wait,” said Liliana, turning back to Vanessa.

“You know damn well I didn’t miss any dancing just because I was single the other times,” responded Vanessa with a tight smile.

“Oh, I know, but it’s different! You get to do the salsa and the slow dances with someone you love,” said Liliana mimicking the dance with the arms around herself and a longing expression on her face. “It’s so romantic, you’ll see. Oh, but who’ll lead?” she asked like she just realized.

“I am,” said Brooke. The question rubbed her the wrong way, but she was giving Liliana the benefit of the doubt.

“Because you’re taller?” said Lilliana.

“Because I want to,” said Brooke, trying her best to remind herself that sometimes people’s prejudices just ran too deep and that was not their fault. “And because that’s how we decided it would be.”

“So she’s the one who wears the pants in this relationship, huh, prima?” said Liliana winking at Vanessa. Brooke could fell Vanessa’s grip on her waist tighten.

“Actually, we’re both wearing dresses tonight,” said Brooke with fake innocence. _If she’s gonna be that kind of girl_ , she thought, _I can be too_. She was pleased to see Liliana taken aback by her response, while Vanessa just burst in laughter by her side. She thought she saw Liliana’s husband cover his own smile with his hand, but that could be wishful thinking.

“We’ll see you later, prima,” said Vanessa, “I wanna introduce Brooke to Fatima.” Lilliana nodded an awkward goodbye as Vanessa took Brooke by the hand towards the back of the salon.

“Isn’t Fatima the bride?” asked Brooke while they walked.

“Yeah,” said Vanessa.

“You already introduced me to her.”

“I know, I wanted to say someone you already met in case she asked,” said Vanessa with a crooked grin, taking Brooke in the direction of the restrooms but turning left before they reached them, walking into a small, empty hallway until they reached the pool area, which wasn’t being used for the wedding and was barely lit by the underwater lights.

“How did you know this place was here?” asked Brooke perplexed, already being pushed against the wall.

“I didn’t, just got lucky,” said Vanessa, taking a wipe from her clutch to carefully take Brooke’s lipstick off and then her own.

“Someone came prepared,” said Brooke, pulling her by the waist.

“I told you, baby, you look too good, it’s making me nuts,” said Vanessa pulling Brooke down by the neck and kissing her open mouthed and hungrily. The wipe was a blessing, if she had done so with her dark red lipstick still on, they would have to spend hours in the bathroom trying to fix the mess before going back to the party. “Then you get all sassy and make Liliana look a fool, I can’t take it anymore,” she bit Brooke’s bottom lip and pressed their bodies impossibly close while kissing her deeply, letting out small, held down moans, one hand still on Brooke’s neck while the other kept a firm pressure on her lower back.

Brooke grunted and flipped them, pressing Vanessa against the wall. She slid her hand down the Latina’s side from the top of her ribs down to her thighs, slowly, following the wonderful curve of her hips until she couldn’t reach any further down without squatting. Vanessa slid her knee up, pressing it against Brooke’s hip. The blonde reached under the hem of Vanessa’s dress just teasingly so, only enough to caress the hot skin above her knee. She wanted nothing more than to keep going until her fingers were in between Vanessa’s legs, or to pick her up and have her dress scrunched all the way up to her ass just so she could wrap her legs around Brooke’s hips, but they couldn’t. Not here.

“Do it,” said Vanessa breathlessly against her ear, rolling her hips suggestively, ”nobody is gonna follow us here, no one is gonna see,” she licked Brooke’s ear and sucked down her neck eagerly. She hooked her leg more firmly against Brooke’s ass and brought a hand to her wrist to guide her touch up her thigh, but Brooke resisted.

“Vanessa,” begged Brooke just as breathless. She wanted to cave, but knew she shouldn’t. She pulled Vanessa’s head back to kiss her again, which didn’t help her resolve at all. She did, however, bring both of her hands up to frame her girlfriend’s face, letting go of her leg. As much as Vanessa wanted to keep it up, she could only balance herself on one heeled foot for so long, so she dropped it.

Brooke ended up softening the kiss, slowing it down and caressing Vanessa’s face gently while doing it. She ran her fingers through her hair and felt her sigh contently. Brooke pulled back to look at her, trace her cheekbone, admire her features. She hugged her and kissed her temple just because, then kissed her again one more time before they put their lipsticks back on to go back to the party.

\--

The way Vanessa painted the dancing for the previous weeks, Brooke thought it would be a kind of competition, albeit friendly. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. By the time the music started a lot of people were already drunk, and the couples dancing were having way too much fun to worry about accuracy. It seemed like the only ones thinking about moves were Liliana and Vanessa, who was so tense she couldn’t even keep up with Brooke.

“I think we should go to the other side,” said Brooke, louder than usual to account for the music.

“What? Then they wouldn’t see us,” responded Vanessa.

“Yeah, exactly.”

“Then what’s the point?”

“Dancing!” said Brooke already pulling Vanessa into the crowd. “Dancing is the point. Come on, I wanna dance with you, have fun with you,” she pleaded.

“If you don’t want to dance with her, I do!” said an old man by their side with a contagious smile, moving completely out of rhythm to the music. “Uh? Come on, Vanessa!” he said, taking the young woman’s hand to spin her around. She rolled her eyes and submitted into a smile. The old man spun her once again, delivering her into Brooke’s arms with a wink, turning around and keeping on with his dancing.

“I like your family a lot,” said Brooke.

“Of course you do, they all love you,” said Vanessa, going on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on Brooke’s cheek, making sure to leave a mark. Brooke smiled widely and didn’t even try to take it off. She took Vanessa on her arms and started leading her into a dance, not to put on a show but to feel their bodies moving in the same flow, lead Vanessa into a twirl and see her hair and skirt fly together in the same movement, step into a complicated pattern and feel their hands and feet synchronize as if their bodies were ruled by the same mind, spin her around too many times and watch her head fall back as she laughed.

They had to take a break eventually, their cheeks hurting from laughing. Brooke was pulling her gown up to the side of her thighs to cool down a bit, and Vanessa was tying her hair into a loose knot on the top of her head, cursing the fact that she didn’t bring a single pin or tie with her. They went back in time to dance a couple more salsa songs before the light changed and the slow music began. People scattered around to give place to the couples, although some relatives were still dancing together just for the fun of it, especially the middle-aged women, so Brooke and Vanessa didn’t even stick out as the only same-sex couple in the bunch.

“You know, Liliana was right,” said Vanessa after a while, with her head on Brooke’s chest.

“About what?” said Brooke. She placed her nose on Vanessa’s hair to smell her as they swayed.

“It’s different to do this with someone you love,” she said, looking up into Brooke’s eyes. “Way better. I really was missing something, but it was no man. I was missing you.”

Brooke leaned down and kissed her for a long moment. “I want you to meet my family too,” she said. “It’s not going to be this fun, probably a little awkward actually, but I want them to meet you.”

Vanessa nodded and a couple of tears fell down her face. Brooke gently wiped them away, placing Vanessa’s head on her chest again as they continued to dance in silence.

\--

“Why aren’t we like that anymore?” said Liliana, pouting, watching Vanessa dancing with her girlfriend while she moved side to side with her husband.

“They’re still dating, we’re married, it’s different,” said Michael.

“I bet it’s because they’re girls. Maybe I should have been a lesbian, girls are way nicer than boys,” said Liliana.

“I’m gonna sit down.”

“What? What did I say?”

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment, it makes me happy <3


End file.
